Why do famous bass players use more than one amp on stage?
 

One thing I've noticed than some players like mike dirnt (green day) use 4 8x10 cabinets when playing a live show. It's looks great I've got to admit but they're only micing one of the cabs. It this all just for show?

hello from EK. honestly sometimes it is just for show but some musicians use it to keep the stage volume with the guitar player fairly level. the mic is on there to send somthing to the p.a/monitor.

With all the excellent in-ear monitoring equipment today, loud stage volumes are not needed unless you love to be in the middle of a wall of sound. As a bonus, the overall mix for the audience sounds much better, too.

Probably just for show. There's really no reason you'd need four 8x10 cabs with a PA system.

The amps may not even be real, some of the big names use plywood movie-type props made to look like an amp the band or player is endorsing.

I have personally witnessed almost this exact same stage prop set up while enjoying an all access pass at a ZZ Top concert. A wall of Marshall cab fronts with a Mesa 1 x 12 behind them and an SM57 feeding it to the arena.

The single best guitar tone & control I've played with was an old school metal box GK 2x8 (remember those).....

In front of the gear were large cabinets

There are many bands who have a wall of empty cabs on stage for no other reason than looks. There was recently an empty SVT head on ebay that was used by INXS as a stage prop.

that is hilarious

It's like the town in Blazing Saddles

More than likely two are real. I live cab and a back up. Same for the head.

The other cabs and head are dummies. Purely for show. More than likely empty to cut down on weight, with LED's running off a 9volt batter in the dummy heads.

The photo posted above. I haven't seen this exact set up BUT I've seen this done. It's more common that you think.

There's a GK ad in a Musician's Friend catalog I have with Flea in it where there's several visible cabinets behind him.. a row of 1x15s on the bottom and a row of 4x10s on top. I always wondered how many of those were functional.

It'd look great having stacks amps for show I suppose!

So Sheryl Crows band doesn't use the entire tall wall of kustoms???

Geddy Lee plays on this. I've seen him use cloths dryers, rotisserie chicken machines and random other stuff as an "amp". They even mic one. His real one is a small in the back.

^^ Most likely none....Flea probably uses an MB 115...lol

Last I read Geddy went direct out of a sansamp and used in-ears. No amp on stage at all.

The Lunchbox?

I took these pictures in 2007 on the Clapton concert, where he was backed up on guitar / bass by Doyle Bramhall II, Derek Trucks and Willie Weeks and as you can see there were as many combo's on stage as there were (half) stacks. I don't think much of that is just put there for show and apparently this is what you need together with a big PA for a full indoor stadium of 20K people.

I see similar situations when I look at the crossroads guitar festivals, even ZZ Top was using only a few combo's.

It's possible. Lot of people use the Bassdriver.

it's been years since I've ran across someone that worked a Rush show.